Advertising is used to persuade an audience to take or continue to take a particular action. The success of an advertisement or an advertising campaign depends on a number of factors. One prominent factor is whether an advertiser is able to reach a target audience with its message. For example, an advertisement for diapers will have little success in persuading consumers who do not have a baby to buy diapers. Another factor is whether an advertiser is able to grab and hold the target audience's attention. An advertisement that an audience quickly dismisses or does not notice will likely have little effect on the audience's behavior.
Traditional media is limited as a mode for advertisers to either target a proper audience or hold the audience's attention. Using traditional media, such as television or print, an advertiser may direct its message to particular demographics of a population, which may be identified based on who is most likely to be consuming the media that the advertisements are tied to. But many members of the audience who ultimately consume the media may not fit the targeted demographic or may otherwise find the advertisement irrelevant. And the passive nature by which traditional media is consumed makes it difficult to engage audiences with advertisements.
The Internet has transformed advertising. It enables advertisers to target audiences on an individual basis using methods that are technologically infeasible through traditional media. For example, information can be learned about a user from his or her browsing or purchasing history, search queries, social networking profile, email messages, and so on. And, if advertisers are able to recognize the user, they can identify and present ads that are likely to be relevant. The Internet also allows advertisers to engage users in ways that are impossible through traditional media. For example, computer users may select a banner advertisement to commence purchasing a product or choose a commercial that they would like to view during a sitcom.
However, like with traditional media, online advertisers have a difficult time fully engaging an audience. Online advertisements litter web page sidebars and footers of mobile apps, unnoticed by users or too inconvenient for them to engage with. And those that are able to attract a user's attention, such as pop-up ads and surveys, are obtrusive and degrade a user's experience of a webpage. Furthermore, as the Internet has evolved and consumers have increasingly consumed traditional media through the Internet, Internet usage has become more passive. As a result, it is more difficult for advertisers to exploit the interactive capabilities of the Internet when advertising to an online audience.
The need exists for a system that overcomes the above problems, as well as one that provides additional benefits. Overall, the examples herein of some prior or related systems and their associated limitations are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of existing or prior systems will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon reading the following Detailed Description.